REG - NextEnergy Solar Fnd - £135m Revolving Credit Facility Refinance

NextEnergy Solar FundAnnouncement

16/04/2024 07:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20240416:nRSP6900Ka&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 6900K  NextEnergy Solar Fund Limited  16 April 2024

LEI: 213800ZPHCBDDSQH5447

16 April 2024

NextEnergy Solar Fund Limited

("NESF" or the "Company")

 

 

£135m Revolving Credit Facility Refinance

 

 

NextEnergy Solar Fund, a leading specialist investor in solar energy and
energy storage, is pleased to announce it has refinanced its existing £135m
short-term Revolving Credit Facility ("RCF") with AIB Group and NatWest which
is due to expire in June 2024.

 

The new facility is available until June 2026 and provides two additional
12-month extension options at NESF's sole discretion to bring the maturity
date up to June 2028.  The RCF continues to benefit from attractive terms
with a margin of 120bps over SONIA ("Sterling Overnight Index Average").  The
banking consortium consists of the Company's existing counterparties AIB Group
and NatWest in addition to a new counterparty Lloyds.

 

The Company is also on track to exercise its option to extend its current
£70m RCF with Santander for another 12-months until June 2025 on similar
terms and well ahead of its June 2024 expiry.  The Company will provide a
further update to the market in due course.

 

RCFs are an important component of the Company's disciplined capital structure
and continue to provide the Company with flexibility both to drawdown to
pursue value-accretive investments and to make repayments.  The Company
continues to prioritise its Capital Recycling Programme and expects to use the
proceeds from the Programme to pay down existing borrowings under the
Company's RCFs.

 

As at 31 December 2023, the Company had drawn £163m from its £205m
short-term Revolving Credit Facilities and had an unaudited Gross Asset Value
("GAV") of £1,173m.  Gearing levels remain well within the Company's
investment policy limit of up to 50% of GAV and as of 31 December 2023 the
Company's gearing was 45.7% (including preference shares which have a fixed
preference dividend of 4.75% and no financial maturity date).

 

 

Ross Grier, COO and Head of UK Investments, NextEnergy Capital, commented:

"We are pleased to have secured similar terms on NextEnergy Solar Fund's
primary revolving credit facility.  As we have previously indicated, we
continue to observe significant lender interest in providing debt to the solar
infrastructure sector across the geographies we are active in.  This
refinancing demonstrates lenders' continued appetite to provide facilities
against utility-scale solar assets in the UK on attractive terms. NESF
maintains a disciplined approach to its capital structure and the sale of
assets within the current capital recycling programme remain a key priority
for the Company, the proceeds of which will be used to pay down existing RCF
borrowings."

 

 For further information:

 NextEnergy Capital                          020 3746 0700

 Michael Bonte-Friedheim                     ir@nextenergysolarfund.com
 Ross Grier
 Stephen Rosser
 Peter Hamid (Investor Relations)

                                             020 7653 4000

 RBC Capital Markets
 Matthew Coakes
 Elizabeth Evans

 Kathryn Deegan

 Cavendish                                   020 7397 1909
 James King
 William Talkington

                                             020 7379 5151

 H/Advisors Maitland
 Neil Bennett
 Finlay Donaldson

                                             01481 742642

 Ocorian Administration (Guernsey) Limited
 Kevin Smith

 

Notes to Editors(1):

About NextEnergy Solar Fund

NextEnergy Solar Fund is a specialist solar energy and energy storage
investment company that is listed on the premium segment of the London Stock
Exchange and is a FTSE 250 constituent.

 

NextEnergy Solar Fund's investment objective is to provide ordinary
shareholders with attractive risk-adjusted returns, principally in the form of
regular dividends, by investing in a diversified portfolio of utility-scale
solar energy and energy storage infrastructure assets.  The majority of
NESF's long-term cash flows are inflation-linked via UK government subsidies.

 

As at 31 December 2023, the Company had an unaudited gross asset value of
£1,173m.  For further information please visit www.nextenergysolarfund.com
(http://nextenergysolarfund.com/)

Article 9 Fund

NextEnergy Solar Fund is classified under Article 9 of the EU Sustainable
Finance Disclosure Regulation and EU Taxonomy Regulation.  NextEnergy Solar
Fund's sustainability-related disclosures in the financial services sector are
in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 and can be accessed on the ESG
section of both the NextEnergy Solar Fund and NextEnergy Capital website.

 

About NextEnergy Group

NextEnergy Solar Fund is managed by NextEnergy Capital, part of the NextEnergy
Group.  NextEnergy Group was founded in 2007 to become a leading market
participant in the international solar sector.  Since its inception, it has
been active in the development, construction, and ownership of solar assets
across multiple jurisdictions.  NextEnergy Group operates via its three
business units: NextEnergy Capital (Investment Management), WiseEnergy
(Operating Asset Management), and Starlight (Asset Development).

 

·      NextEnergy Capital: Over 17 years of specialist solar expertise
having invested in over 400 individual solar plants across the world.
NextEnergy Capital currently manages four institutional funds with a total
capacity in excess of 3GW+ and has assets under management of $4bn.
www.nextenergycapital.com (http://www.nextenergycapital.com/)

·      WiseEnergy®:  is a leading specialist operating asset manager
in the solar sector.  Since its founding, WiseEnergy has provided solar asset
management, monitoring and technical due diligence services to over 1,500
utility-scale solar power plants with an installed capacity in excess of
2GW.  www.wise-energy.com (http://www.wise-energy.com)

·    Starlight: Developed over 100 utility-scale projects internationally
and continues to progress a large pipeline of c.10GW of both green and
brownfield project developments across global geographies.

 

Notes:

(1:) All financial data is unaudited at 31 December 2023, being the latest
date in respect of which NextEnergy Solar Fund has published financial
information

 

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  PFUQKPBKABKDAQD